In a time of budget cuts, provincial government departments continue to waste money on caterers and hire fancy venues for events.
|||Durban - In a time of budget cuts, a decrease in national funding to the province’s coffers and tight austerity measures, provincial government departments continue to waste money on caterers and hire fancy venues for events, Belinda Scott, chairwoman of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature’s finance portfolio committee, warned on Tuesday.
Speaking during the debate of the provincial budget in Pietermaritzburg, Scott urged provincial government departments to rein in wanton spending, calling on them to host events at department buildings and cut out the catering.
Her warning came just hours before a parliamentary reply to questions posed by the DA in KZN revealed that the provincial government spent R129 000 sponsoring a The New Age business breakfast.
According to a breakdown of the expenditure, the province spent R86 700 on venue hiring and catering, R30 663 on equipment hiring – which included microphones, screens and a sound system – and R12 000 on printing. Value-added tax came to R15 886.
The provincial government said the event was held at Sibaya Casino because no other government venue was available.
According to the DA, the breakfast was attended by KZN ANC government officials, “cherry picked” by the premier’s office. The DA said invitations were not extended to any other members of the legislature.
“It appears that the premier has spent an excessive amount of taxpayers’ money on an event aimed purely at self-promotion,” said provincial DA leader, Sizwe Mchunu.
“This is yet another example of how public money is being channelled to The New Age newspaper because it is owned by President Jacob Zuma’s allies, the Gupta family.”
Mchunu said the excuse that Sibaya was the only venue available since there were no other government venues to accommodate the meeting also warranted further explanation.
“The Office of the Premier’s efforts to justify forking out R130 000 – by supplying various advertising statistics - are yet another attempt to deflect from the real issue. The fact is that the premier sanctioned the use of taxpayers’ money for ANC electioneering purposes, thinly disguised as an elitist business breakfast. He owes the public an explanation,” he said.
Scott said provincial departments should be tightening their belts as the province had been subjected to dual budget cuts from the Treasury.
“First the 2011 Census data revealed that KZN has had a reduction in population figures. This has translated to a significant reduction in equitable share allocation to the province amounting to 6.722 billion over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework period.
Second, the National Treasury had implemented baseline cuts of 1 percent, 2 percent and 3 percent for all spheres of government on 20 percent of the provincial equitable share allocations,” she said.
The budget, tabled by Finance MEC Ina Cronjé in March, was mostly welcomed by opposition parties yesterday, albeit with a wait-and-see approach from some.
“The acid test is how you implement it, MEC, so as to create jobs and for growth,” the DA’s Johann Krog said.
Krog, who praised Cronjé for delivering a surplus two years in a row, said that the province’s 2.5-percent GDP growth was too low when compared with emerging markets.
Cronjé said the economy had done relatively well in the face of the global economic crunch.
“We are not immune to what is happening in the world but considering what is happening, we are still going at a good rate. We are growing faster than America; we are growing faster than Britain; we are growing faster than the Euro zone.”
She said it was important for provincial departments to maintain fiscal discipline.
“A lot of people have spoken about the cuts of our budgets, but we are relieved that through fiscal discipline and strong management we can still deliver services and do it better than before.
Cronjé called on the portfolio committee to monitor spending and report back on how exactly the money was used to create jobs.
Daily News